SUGAR^®

Click here to apply/register for SUGAR® training and Certification.

SUGAR® Certification Training   (with Licensure)

Since its introduction in 2013, Bitten Jonsson has been the sole provider of Certification Training that teaches healthcare professionals of all types how to effectively use the powerful, diagnostic tool known as SUGAR® . Today, there are scores of SUGAR®  Certified and Licensed professionals across the globe. Countless more are needed, however, to battle the growing onslaught of sugar and food addiction in today’s ultra-processed food environment. You can join us and become one of those much-needed professionals!

The acronym SUGAR® stands for Sugar Use General Assessment Recording.
SUGAR® is the first and only diagnostic instrument specifically dedicated to assessing addiction / pathological use of sugar, flour and processed food.

With nearly three decades of specialized experience in sugar addiction treatment, Bitten Jonsson trains professionals on the nature of this complex disease. This Certification course includes all of the topics necessary for professionals to capably assess sugar / food addiction with the SUGAR® diagnostic instrument and make informed treatment recommendations.

This simple tool transforms people’s lives.

The SUGAR® evaluation tool for sugar and food addiction has proven to be extremely effective in breaking through denial and motivating clients. It serves as a basis for treatment planning and is based on ICD-10 / ICD-11 and DSM-5 addiction criteria. SUGAR® Certification Training is now offered as a stand-alone class that perfectly complements the Holistic Medicine for Addiction (HMA) certification.

SUGAR-adolescent® is currently being developed and will be available in the near future.

What is SUGAR®?

• • SUGAR®  is a comprehensive, diagnostic assessment tool (administered as a structured interview) that examines a client’s relationship with sugar, flour, processed food and its related consequences.
  • Prior to the development of SUGAR® , there was no comprehensive diagnostic evaluation instrument available for “food addiction,” although a number of screening tools do exist such as UNCOPE / S, Yale scale, different self-assessment questionnaires, etc.
  • SUGAR®  is based on the diagnostic criteria for harmful use, pathological use and addiction to mind-altering (psychoactive) drugs as described in the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases) from WHO, and DSM5 from APA and is currently being upgraded to ICD 11.
    
  • SUGAR®  is a tool that accurately distinguishes between “pathological” (addictive) use and “harmful use” (such as stress eating or emotional eating by a person who is experiencing damaging consequences but isn’t chemically dependent). This distinction is vital in identifying appropriate treatment. Those two very different conditions have very different treatment protocols. Addiction to sugar, flour, and/or processed food is a chronic, complex and serious disease requiring a treatment model of abstinence. “Harmful use,” on the other hand, can sometimes be remedied with a treatment model of moderation.
  • Embedded in the tool is screening for Addiction Interaction Disorder (AID). This important screening addresses the need to understand Addiction as one illness with many outlets, such as alcohol, subscription pills and recreational drugs.
  • Each SUGAR® assessment includes an addiction development curve which shows that client’s relationship with sugar / flour / food from the beginning of the harmful use, to the present. This is the best motivational tool available for addicted people today. It has proven to be quite successful in increasing client motivation and compliance with recovery treatment protocols.

Who is SUGAR® training for?

SUGAR®  is for professionals who work with people who may have developed a problematic relationship (or even a chemical dependence upon) sugar, flour and/or processed food. The purpose of the training is to learn how to use the SUGAR® diagnostic instrument which is based on internationally approved criteria for dependence according to diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5, and ICD-10 (soon to be ICD-11) for harmful use and addiction.

After the training, you will be able to:

• • Analyze and compile the information collected from SUGAR® assessments based on the diagnostic criteria and knowledge about addiction medicine in an organized and easily understood way.
  • Present your assessment to any client, or to the referral organization, in a therapeutic, non-confrontational manner that provides a safe space for your client to begin their recovery.
  • Assist the client in gaining deep insight and knowledge into their problem to tackle denial, as well as gain insight into how to receive help and direct the client to the appropriate treatment.
  • Only practitioners / professionals certified and licensed in SUGAR® are authorized to use this diagnostic assessment tool. Authorization for this tool requires completion of the SUGAR® certification/licensure course and continuing licensure afterward.

Click here to apply/register for SUGAR® training and Certification.

Here’s what SUGAR® co-developer Börje Dahl has to say about it:

“In using SUGAR®, we ask our patients to give us permission to be invited into their lives, to share their experiences, and to learn about how a psychoactive substance has captured their being. This process creates an alliance between us, increasing the interviewee’s willingness to change and decreasing the level of shame that loss of control has caused them. In short, SUGAR® is a steppingstone to a new life.” — Börje Dahl CEO  Dahl and Dahl

Cost of SUGAR® Certification training:

In 2021, the cost for SUGAR® Certification training is $3,075 (USD). That includes your first year of SUGAR® Licensure at a 50% discount! Click here to apply/register for SUGAR® training and Certification.

Prerequisites for the SUGAR® Certification course – at least one of the following:

• If you have a problem with food, you will have the option of someone on our team doing a SUGAR® assessment on you at a 50% discount.
• Prior participation in training with Bitten Jonsson.
• Prior participation in the INFACT course.
• Certification in ADDIS® or ADDIS®  adolescent
• Nutrition specialist.
• Licensed dietician or nutritional advisor.
• Academic degree in health and / or social fields (eg physician, nurse, psychologist, social worker, psychotherapist etc.)
• Alcohol / drug counselor
• Special cases : If you have no prior formal education in the health, social or addiction fields, exceptions can be granted for those with several years of work experience in the food addiction / nutrition / alcohol / drug area.

Click here to apply/register for SUGAR® training and Certification.

For further information, please contact Bitten Jonsson .